Market Street office building will become city’s largest hostel

A plan to convert an aging Market Street office building into the city’s largest hostel has received the go-ahead from the Planning Commission. The commission voted unanimously Thursday evening to allow the owner of the 1904 building at Seventh and Market streets to move ahead with the project.

“To say that much of the building needs repair is an understatement,” said board President Ron Miguel, who once ran a non-profit group with offices at 1095 Market St. With the easy access to BART, citywide transit and downtown, “this is a prime location, in my mind, for a hostel.”

Plans call for the building to be divided into 94 rooms, including a number of large, barracks-style rooms typical of hostels, with a number of beds that are rented individually.

But the facility also will include rooms with private baths, providing a more up-scale experience for some of the guests. Plans for the eight-story hostel, which is slated to open in 2013, also call for a restaurant, basement night spot and a pair of rooftop terraces.

One of the things that sold the project to the commission was the plan to retain the turn-of-the-century look of the building’s facade, while bringing the interior to modern standards.

“This is an excellent example of adaptive re-use,” said Commissioner Christina Olague. “It’s always nice to see a building preserved.”